Path of Exile News

Bright as dawn and mysterious like the starry night, the Twilight Mystery Box has easily become one of the most popular Mystery Boxes of all time. As an appreciation for your continued support, we're making the soundtrack of this Mystery Box available as a free download.

To download the Twilight Mystery Box soundtrack, click (or Right-click, “Save link as”) on the file type you prefer: .flac or .mp3. Enjoy!

If you enjoy music created by our composer Kamil, check out his Soundcloud here or YouTube channel.

For the Heist expansion our art team created not only new NPC models, but a lot of new assets and materials, as well as updated some existing ones. Stan, one of our environment material artists, has written an article about creating materials for the Heist expansion.

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Hi! I'm Stan Brown, an Environment Material Artist at Grinding Gear Games. I joined the team in May 2020 to work on the exciting Path of Exile 2 project, I also had the privilege to create materials for Heist League.



Creating materials for a game already rich with history and lore is a lot of fun and gives an opportunity to add details from already existing parts of the game. An example of this is the Mansion area in Heist. The marble floor mosaics are based on the stained glass windows in the Chamber of Innocence, and the tiles around it are an unbroken recreation of the floor in the Sceptre of God area.



I use mostly Adobe Allegorithmic's Substance Designer to create my materials. This is a node based system for creating PBR (Physically Based Rendering) materials. This means that materials created correctly will react more realistically with light sources than previous methods. It's also cool to be able to add scratches and other details that show up as a light is moved across the surface.





A part I love about material creation and especially for ground materials is to delve into the stories behind them. This means asking questions such as: Did they have the technology to create the floor type I envision? Who lives there? What kind of foot traffic does this area have? What kind of dirt or oil stains could potentially be in this area and why? Is it well kept or abandoned?



The answers to these questions then help make a believable material that fits the surrounding models, for example like the floor in the Tunnels using the same stones under the dirt as the side walkways.



A big thanks goes out to all my colleagues for being such awesome people to work with! Stay safe everyone.

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If you'd like to check out more works of Stan, have a look at his ArtStation profile here.

Earlier this week we discussed our plans about improvements to the Heist league for the immediate future. The team has been working on a new patch which contains some of the things mentioned in that news post, as well as other fixes. We're planning to deploy the 3.12.3 update as early as possible next week (Monday or Tuesday NZT). Today we've prepared a preview of its patch notes to give you an idea of what to expect.

Please note that the patch notes below may be changed prior to release of the 3.12.3 update.

[h3]Heist Improvements[/h3]

• Enabled questlines that lead towards The Twins and the Nashta, The Usurper Heist boss encounters.
  
• Significantly increased the likelihood of obtaining Unique Contracts from Smuggler's Caches.
  
• Reduced the maximum length of a Heist in higher level areas. The number of Reward Rooms remains unchanged.
  
• Reduced the number of Heist Job Doors along the path to the primary objective in Heists.
  
• Moved some of the more valuable main-path chest rewards to Reward Room Chests.
  
• Improved the rewards of Generic, Talisman, Metamorph and Harbinger Reward Room Chests.
  
• Dropped Talismans in level 68+ areas now drop with higher-tier modifiers on average and with a random Anointed Notable.
  
• Many Reward Room Chests can now drop their respective Scarabs.
  
• Updated the minimap icon used for Generic Rewards to more closely reflect the random assortment of possible rewards.
  
• Significantly increased the amount of experience that Heist monsters grant when killed.
  
• Increased the Rogue Marker value of Heist objectives by up to 40% (based on the Tier of the Contract).
  
• Reduced the revealing cost for high-tier Blueprints by up to 15%.
  
• Blueprints now display all Reward Chests that Wings contain, rather than just the Reward Chests which can be revealed.
  
• Rooms on Blueprints that you must spend Rogue Markers to reveal will no longer include Armour, Weapons or Jewellery rewards.
  
• The "additional seconds to Lockdown Timer" modifier on Ally Equipment now gives a maximum of 5 seconds (from 10 seconds). Existing items are affected by this change.
  
• The "increased time before Lockdown" modifier on Ally Equipment now gives a maximum of 10% increased time before Lockdown (from 20%). Existing items are affected by this change.
  
• Isla, the Engineer's Heist Perk now gives 30% increased time before Lockdown at Level 1, up to 50% increased time before Lockdown at Level 5 (from 80% at Level 5).
  
• Opening a Heist chest during the Imminent Lockdown timer will now reduce the remaining time by 3 seconds (from 1 second).
  
• Improved the visibility of Observer Totems and their skill effects.
  
• Observer Totems in Contracts requiring the Perception Job now only increase your Alert Level if their area of effect pulse hits you.
  
• Prophecies can no longer trigger when entering a Heist area.
  
• A description of the Rogue Marker value of a Heist Target can now be seen on a Contract.
  
• Blueprints will now display the area level on their item tooltip.
  
• Corpses of many Heist monsters can now be created with Desecrate.
  
• Lockpicking Doors now open slightly faster.
  
• Karst, the Lockpick and Tullina, the Catburglar now complete their Agility Jobs faster.
  
• Gianna, the Master of Disguise's Disguise skill no longer has a cooldown. This fixes a case where she was unable to disguise herself in quick succession.
  
• Rogues now have a short cooldown after using a voice line before they can use it again.
  
• Reinforcements now spawn slightly quicker in Laboratory and Prohibited Library.
  
• Fixed a bug which could sometimes result in fewer monsters spawning than intended as reinforcements during Lockdown.
  
• Fixed a bug where Tullina could fail to open a Heist door in the Underbelly.
  
• Fixed a bug where Rogues would sometimes dance in place after placing a bomb near a Demolition job if you were standing too close to the door.
  
• Fixed a bug which prevented the "League Interface" hotkey from working on Heist Chests during Lockdown if you had Tibbs or Niles with you.
  
• Fixed a bug where a Heist chest could spawn in unwalkable terrain in Smuggler's Den.
  
• Fixed a visual issue where it appeared as if Alert Level was not increasing when opening Heist chests.
  
• Fixed a bug which allowed players to apply Veiled Modifiers and Incubators to Ally Equipment, Contracts and Blueprints.
  
• Fixed a bug where Trinket modifiers which caused Heist Chests to drop additional rewards weren't being applied if the chest was opened by an accompanying Rogue.
  
• Fixed a bug where some Ally Equipment could list Adiyah, the Wayfinder and Kurai, the Administrator as Rogues that it could be equipped by.
  
• Fixed a bug where Heist Rogues would retain their Quest Item dialogue option after you had already taken the Quest Item.
  
• Fixed a bug where Ashblessed Warden's Beam skill hit a larger area than intended.
  
• Fixed a bug where Contracts and Blueprints displayed level requirements.
  

[h3]General Improvements[/h3]

• Hexblast now prioritises Cursed enemies.
  
• Steel Shards are now maintained between areas.
  
• Tane Octavius can now be Ctrl + Clicked to bring up the Vendor window.
  
• The Captain Fairgraves encounter in The Ship Graveyard now begins slightly sooner.
  
• Added The Hidden Blade, Crest of Desire and The Ghastly Theatre to the Unique Collection Tab.
  
• Adjusted the look of Exalted Weapon Effect to closer match its original visuals.
  
• Fixed a bug which could cause Cremation to sometimes deal no damage.
  
• Fixed a bug which could prevent the use of Berserk after weapon-swapping.
  
• Fixed a bug where Phantasmal Cyclone's "x% Chance to Avoid Interruption from Stuns While Using this Skill" quality modifier rolled when you began channelling and used the outcome of that roll until you stopped channelling, rather than rolling each time something attempted to stun you.
  
• Fixed a bug where Void Sphere, Sigil of Power, Flame Wall and Frost Shield supported by Trap Support could visually disappear after you threw a different trap.
  
• Fixed a bug causing the moving of the camera when Lightning Warping to be out of sync with the skill effects.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Unnatural Instinct unique Viridian Jewel would not grant implicit modifier stats if they matched a stat granted by being socketed into your passive skill tree.
  
• Fixed a bug where Replica Rumi's Concoction unique flask didn't display its buff name while active.
  
• Fixed an issue where the "Crackling Lance has x% increased branching angle" Eternal Labyrinth helmet enchantment had a lower value than intended. It now grants 36% increased branching angle.
  
• Fixed a bug introduced in 3.12.0 where the Cortex encounter no longer spawned minions.
  
• Fixed a bug introduced in 3.12.0 where Void Pits in Synthesis Guardian encounters weren't removed.
  
• Fixed a bug where opening a Map with an Alva Atlas Mission while you had no Incursions remaining for your Temple of Atzoatl would consume the mission.
  
• Fixed a bug where Vaal Temple Map displayed an incorrect Atlas Region and was required to unlock a Favourite Map slot in Valdo's Rest.
  
• Fixed a bug where the size of Dragon Portal Effect was smaller than intended when created outside of your Hideout.
  

[h3]Crash Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed an instance crash.
  

We've prepared a small update which should fix the portals to the Rogue Harbour from Heists, as well as a handful of other issues. We're planning to deploy the 3.12.2b update by the end of this week, likely today (Thursday NZT). In the meantime, check out a preview of its patch notes.

Please note that the patch notes below may be changed prior to release of the 3.12.2b update.

• The Rogue Harbour is now a private area which only you and your party members can access.
  
• Fixed a bug which caused Grand Heists to sometimes fail to spawn an entrance to a Wing.
  
• Fixed a bug where Agility Jobs could sometimes not be completed in Underbelly.
  
• Fixed a bug introduced in 3.12.0 where Skitterbots preferred pathing towards allies, rather than enemies.
  
• Fixed a bug where Animated Guardians didn't lose their items when they died.
  
• Fixed a client crash that could occur when stealing a modifier from a Nemesis Rare monster.
  
• Fixed a client crash that could occur when applying the Revenant Explosive Arrow Effect microtransaction.
  
• Fixed an instance crash that could occur when using Infernal Blow.
  

We'll deploy more improvements to the Heist league next week in the 3.12.3 update. Thanks for your feedback and patience!

During the development of the Heist expansion, just when we were about to record voice lines for the league, New Zealand went into a second lockdown to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Nick, one of our narrative designers, has written an article about the process of recording the Heist voice acting from Level 3 lockdown.

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Earlier this year, New Zealand, like much of the world, went into mandatory lockdown to stop the spread of the coronavirus -- right in the middle of development for Harvest. Thankfully, Harvest was relatively light on narrative, and we were able to record Oshabi's dialogue after restrictions had been eased. Harvest's simpler story let us put more effort into Heist, which was intended to be much more story- and character-driven.

I'd started concepting characters a month or two before development began in earnest, and had run through more narrative ideas than I can actually remember. From the outset, this looked like it would give Betrayal -- the previous dialogue heavyweight -- a run for its money, but at least we were on track.

Then, on August 11, it was announced that Auckland, where GGG operates, would be put in lockdown again.

Uh oh.

At that stage, we had maybe two out of thirteen scripts complete, but we'd luckily already cast the majority of characters, and writing can thankfully be done basically anywhere there's a steady supply of coffee and snacks. But recording the characters, well, that can't be done from home.

...Usually.

The first character we were to record was Kurai, voiced by Miriama Smith. She was, at the time, in managed isolation (AKA quarantine) as she'd just returned from a shoot in Australia. The team at Native Audio went to her hotel and handed off a home-recording kit, and the bulk of Heist's story framework was recorded in her hotel room, with us listening in from our homes.

It was a trial by fire, and a necessary one, because it turns out that was how we'd be recording nearly all of Heist's characters. Many of the people we'd cast had home studios -- some even lived in, and recorded from the UK -- and the ones that didn't either got a home kit temporarily or went into the Native Audio studios under very rigorous hygiene restrictions.

The end result isn't perfect. One of the main reasons to consistently use the same studio is to ensure all characters have the same quality to the voice, and in Heist, there are a few characters that distinctly sound a bit different when heard in isolation. But we had to record dialogue earlier for Heist than most leagues so we could implement them into our new conversation system.

Given the circumstances and challenges we faced, the end result is honestly pretty stellar.

We implemented a new system for handling conversations for Heist. This system lets us rank dialogue by priority, with higher priority dialogue cutting off lower priority dialogue and preventing any new lower priority dialogue from playing. We did this specifically to avoid the Betrayal issue of characters yelling over each other in an unintelligible mess. Then we made our poor programmer Josh make a bazillion exceptions to this so I could intentionally have characters talk over each other. Making Huck and Tullina awkwardly and repeatedly talk over each other is probably the greatest abuse of my power I've achieved while working at GGG, and hearing it brings me endless joy.

In a future post we'll talk about how we build out some of the lore for this league, and some interesting facts and connections you might not know about, so keep an eye out for that!